Prayers in Second Chronicles: Models for Faithful Prayer

Second Chronicles ends the lengthy historical annals of the kings of Israel, both north and south. Beginning near the end of David’s reign (9th century BC), the story is told of the powerful united kingdom, a civil war and division into north and south (called Israel and Judah), and the events from that point until the destruction of the north by the Assyrian Empire (722 BC), and then the destruction and exile of the south by the Babylonian Empire (586 BC). The story ends with a brief account of the exile and the return from exile, eighty years later.

Prayer plays a major role throughout Second Chronicles and gives us various models for our own prayers: praise, petitions, intercessions, thanksgivings, a blessing, a vow, and a confession. Almost all of these prayers are tied to the theme of “immediate retribution” emphasized by the writer: when one is faithful, the blessings of God follow, but when one is unfaithful, suffering and punishment are the results. During the last decades of Israel’s existence, we find the themes of confessions, repentance, new beginnings, and the joy that God takes when a stray child returns to him, all exemplified in the prayers within.

The history of Israel, like our own lives, is filled with times of faithfulness and unfaithfulness, times of joy and sadness, failure and victory, betrayal and redemption, suffering and blessing. Within these kings, good, bad, flawed, selfish, and even evil, we find parts of ourselves. Their prayers can become our prayers, helping us to avoid their mistakes and build upon their faithfulness.